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ADA MP-1 MIDI TUBE PREAMP

 

The ADA© MP-1 MIDI Preamp is a circa MID-80's tube preamplifier with MIDI programmable presets. This preamplifier uses a mix of high headroom operational amps and 12AX7 preamp tubes to create super-clean and over-the-top overdrive/ distortion tones that can be saved as presets for instant recall by Program Changes via a MIDI footswitch. This preamp was used by many prominent Guitar Players in the 80's like Vito Bratta (White Lion), Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big), Jason Becker & Marty Friedman (Cagophony), Vernon Reid (Living Color).

There were many mods engineered after ADA's inception of the preamp to improve its functionality... These MODS were documented and available by the long defunct ADAdepot© which has recently rose, from the ashes, as a forum headed up by MP-1 enthuisiasts... http://www.adadepot.com/

The mods performed on this particular unit are as follows...

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INSTALL UPDATED V2.01 ROM / FIRMWARE

A V2.01 ROM was purchased online and installed to provide 69 New Presets and other MIDI enhancements as compared to the Stock V1.38 ROM

rom

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REAR INPUT MOD

The rear input on the standard MP-1 was a Balanced-low-impedance input (pretty useless for guitar). This input would be more useful as an unbalanced-high-impedance input to allow connection of the guitar signal to the rear panel from a wireless receiver or other rack effects. (way more useful)

rear

Also includes a new isolated Switchcraft L12A Jack on the front...

ip

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BATTERYLESS MOD

From the factory, all of the MP-1 Presets are maintained in Static RAM backed-up by a 3V lithium battery when the unit is off. If a user forgot to replace the battery every 5-years or so, all of the presets would be erased and you would need to be reload the factory presets from the internal ROM. I remember playing in a club in the mid-90's with the band Postmodernist Bent who's guitar player had an ADA MP-1, (I was using a Marshall JMP-1 at the time), I guess his back-up battery was dead and he didn't know how to replace it because, before their set, he manually programmed 2 to 3 presets from scratch and left the unit on before they started to play. I guess that he hoped that no one would flick the switch on his power bar!

Anyway I did some research to find that the SRAM could be replaced by an EEPROM that wouldn't require a back-up battery.

That mod is detailed here...

kylheku EEPROM Mod

eeprom

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REAR FX LOOP LEVEL SWITCH

The Rear FX Loop has a switchable FX ouput level, unfortunately, from the factory, the -10dB / +4 dB (Instrument / Line) switch is on the top of the chassis. Not nice if you need to flip the switch. The Switch was relocated to the rear of the chassis.

sw

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NOISE MOD

The noise mod entails replacing resistors, capacitors and opamps to reduce the noise in the preamp... all of the electrolytic caps were also removed and replaced as should be done with a 25 year old preamp. These were outlined in the ADADepot© doc labeled ADADepot© Noise Mod

opa

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IEC POWER INLET

I hate rackmount gear that is tethered by a power cord... especially when you have to de-rack it and you have to "clip" cable ties to release the cord. I removed the stock power cord and Heyco© strain-relief and cut the chassis to accept a standard IEC power inlet that would accept a removeable power cord.

ac